Shared workbooks are a great feature of Microsoft Excel. You should set up ‘shared workbooks’ if many people are required to complete a project. This feature allows you to collaborate with other members of your team quickly and easily. In short, a shared workbook is configured to allow multiple users on a network to edit it simultaneously. In fact, the computer can view the data at the same time. For example, the manager may need to know the status of a project. Many times, if the same group is working on multiple projects, they may also need to know the progress status of others.

How is the shared workbook configured? One of the people on the team can create a template or standard workbook where data from different people can be entered based on their experience. In a tour operator scenario, one person will enter the airfare, another will take care of the accommodation, and yet another will end the local tour in a taxi or bus. Once the properly formatted workbook has been prepared, the workbook is saved to a shared folder on the network which is then available to everyone working on the project.

Since some Excel features can be used or viewed, but not changed once the workbook is shared, the workbook author must ensure that features such as data validation, charts, conditional formats, merged cells, hyperlinks , scenarios, pivot table reports, worksheet protection, and macros are carefully checked in and configured before implementing the exchange.

Now for the cool part: if two users edit the same cell in a shared workbook worksheet, a conflict resolution window appears and you can decide which changes you want to accept. Also, every time a team member saves the shared workbook, they receive an update notice. You can also highlight or track changes automatically.

As you can see, you work on a shared workbook just like you would any workbook, with the main advantage that the shared workbook improves team productivity by using your expertise on a project and you can see who is working on the workbook at any time. of time.